The Boeing Starliner uncrewed spacecraft landed on Earth successfully late Friday, September 6, in a New Mexico desert. The Boeing Starliner spacecraft carried astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore to the ISS International Space Station on June 6.
The Starliner spacecraft has been facing many issues since its launch, including multiple launch delays due to Helium leaks and oxygen valve malfunctions. The mission was finally launched on June 5. The Starliner reached the ISS on June 6.
The Starliner spacecraft then experienced thruster malfunctions. Five of the 28 thrusters on the Starliner spacecraft failed, which made it unsafe for the crew to dock automatically; thus, the astronauts had to carry out manual docking.
Since the docking, the spacecraft’s conditions kept worsening. The 8-day-long mission has been delayed to 8 months as the Starliner spacecraft remained unsafe for the crew’s return. The company faced serious criticism due to these circumstances.
Despite multiple tries by the NASA and Boeing engineers to solve the issues aboard the Starliner spacecraft, the possibility of crewed return kept drifting away.
In a recent report, the Starliner crew reported the general sensation of hearing strange, scary noises from the spacecraft.
Later, NASA announced on Saturday, August 24 that its two Boeing Starliner astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, will not be returning on their Starliner spacecraft as planned and officially stated that the crew will be returning aboard the SpaceX crew-9 dragon spacecraft around February 2025.
Read: NASA: Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to be brought back on SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft
The Starliner spacecraft then undocked from the ISS on September 6 at 5:45 p.m. EDT (2145 GMT).
“She’s on her way home. Congratulations to the undocking team!” said astronaut Sunita Williams to the mission control.
After successful undocking, the Starliner spacecraft made it to Earth, landing safely in White Sands Space Harbour, New Mexico, on September 7 at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) after spending 3 months attached to the international space station. “Great landing of Calypso; I don’t think that could have gone better,” Sunita Williams radioed to the mission control.
Joel Montalbano, deputy associate administrator of the Space Operations Mission Directorate; Steve Stich, manager of the Commercial Crew Program; and Dana Weigel, manager, of International Space Station, participated in a post-landing press conference that started around 1:30 a.m. EDT (0530 GMT).
“It’s great to have the Starliner home; a safe and successful landing was exactly what we wanted,” said Joel Montalbano in the press conference.
“CFT is very personal to our team and to a lot of the people that worked on the mission, and it represents a tremendous honour to bring the vehicle back,” said Steve Stitch, NASA manager, in the press conference.
“I do want to express my sincere appreciation for the team; they worked tirelessly for the whole summer. We had Starliner onboard stationed for months; most folks were working nights and weekends; they did an excellent job; the proof is in getting the vehicle safely back home,” said Dana Weigel during the press conference.
During the press conference, the NASA associates also talked about the busy schedule as NASA prepares for the upcoming 73 Soyuz mission that is set to launch on September 11, which will carry NASA astronaut Don Pettit to the ISS, and the SpaceX crew-9 mission that will launch by the end of September.
